346 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Instances are recorded where Italians have arrived in America as 

 immigrants, who admitted having been here six or seven times before. 

 It is certain, however, that the Italian laborer, in a majority of in- 

 stances, gradually gets accustomed to American ways and finds things 

 at home more strange on each succeeding visit, and eventually loses all 

 desire to live permanently in his native land. He goes back and forth 

 to see his old parents, to escape destitution in a New York tenement 

 when out of work, or to arrange, if he is prosperous enough, to bring 

 his family here. 



Nothing illustrates the growing permanency of our Italian immi- 

 grants with greater force than the ever increasing proportion of women 

 and children now recorded among Italian immigrants. Whenever the 

 Italian is able to shift for himself, when he is independent of the 

 padrone and Italian banker, he is likely to be a permanent and useful 

 citizen. The sums alleged to have been sent to Italy by Italian laborers 

 here have been grossly exaggerated, and it is doubtful if any Italian, 

 successful enough here to acquire a competence, could escape Amer- 

 icanization, or have any desire to live in Italy after having adopted 

 American ideas of living. The Italian laborer sends money to Italy 

 to his aged parents or to his wife, to help pay rent, taxes and other 

 burdens at home. He does this from a high sense of filial or marital 

 duty, for the Italian never forgets his duty to either parent or wife, 

 and surely this devotion is commendable; but his desire in many in- 

 stances is really to establish a home and bring his dependent ones here 

 to live with him. 



The Italian is gradually becoming independent of the padrone. 

 He is also beginning to learn the splendid possibilities for independent 

 effort in agricultural pursuits. That there is a great field for him is 

 shown by his success wherever he has been led in the right direction. 

 To make the Italian uniformly successful it is only necessary to lead 

 him out into the country, away from the vitiated atmosphere of the 

 tenement and slum. No place is better fitted for him than our 

 southern states, and no immigrant is better fitted for playing a part 

 in the development of those states than the Italian. He requires the 

 pure air of the country and the geniality of the southern winter, and 

 by his skill and industry in intensive farming, he can make the sandy 

 soil of the pine land productive or reclaim the swamps and lowlands, 

 which have lain fallow for years. He can give the southern planter 

 his reliable thrifty labor to replace the erratic improvident negro, and 

 can introduce and carry to perfection the vine growing and wine 

 making, which have made southern, 1 California famous. These are 

 some of the possibilities of the Italian immigrant, if properly directed, 

 but his mode of life in the great cities, where the vast majority of 

 Italians lives, presents quite a different picture. Here we find the 

 'Italian quarter,' which is responsible for most of the prejudice against 



